as Wendy
Release date: January 2005
Director: Gregg Araki
Screenplay by: Scott Heim, Gree Araki.
Also Starring: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Brady Corbet, Elisabeth Shue.
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"The summer I was eight years old, five hours disappeared from my life. Five hours, lost, gone without a trace..." These are the words of Brian Lackey (Brady Corbet), a troubled 18 year-old, growing up in the stiflingly small town of Hutchinson, Kansas. Plagued by nightmares, Brian believes that he may have been the victim of an alien abduction. Local Neil McCormick (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) however, is the ultimate beautiful outsider. With a loving but promiscuous mother (Elisabeth Shue), Neil is wise beyond his years and curious about his developing sexuality, having found what he perceived to be love from hisLittle League baseball coach (played by Hal Hartley veteran Bill Sage) at a very early age. Now, ten years later, Neil is a teenage hustler, nonchalant about the dangerous path his life is taking ignoring pleas fom best friend Wendy (Michelle Trachtenberg). Neil's pursuit of love leads him to New York City, while Brian's voyage of self discovery leads him to Neil - who helps him to unlock the dark secrets of their past. Based on the acclaimed novel by Scott Heim, Mysterious Skin explores the hearts and minds of two very different boys who come to find the key to their future happiness lies in the exorcism of their collective demons.
Images
Screencaps
Screencaps - DVD
Promotional
Trailer - United States
Trailer - France
Venice Film Festival
Videos
Quotable: Wendy
Wendy: I can't believe I'm finally getting out of this f***ing nowhere town!Wendy: You'd better be careful.
Eric: Of what?
Wendy: I'm serious, Eric. You're not in Modesto anymore. I see the way you look at him.
Eric: He's so beautiful. I can't help it. He's like a god.
Wendy: You don't have to tell me, I was infatuated with him too once. But I know all Neil's secrets and there's shit there you don't even want to know about. Trust me. Once I'm gone, you'll be all Neil has and you have to understand one thing. Where normal people have a heart, Neil McCormick has a bottomless black hole. And if you don't watch out, you can fall in and get lost forever.
Quotable: Michelle
"I’m so honored that he called me. I had coffee with Gregg (Araki) and he said I think you would be wonderful for this role."
"We were all there because we loved the script and wanted so much to put it on film."
"I play Joe"s best friend. I am the only one he has ever been able to trust in his life, so I help him understand what happened to him when he was younger."
'I really think it is one of the most beautiful depictions of the human heart.'
'It's a major departure from anything I've ever done. After you do a project, you get sent a ton of scripts that are exactly like that character. Gregg took a huge chance on me, and I appreciate it so much because he saw me outside the kitschy Buffy box.'
'I want you to leave the theatre not necessarily being like, "Oh my god Michelle rocked!" I want you to leave the theatre saying, "Holy shit! That was intense and insane, and it was amazing." I want people talking.'
'I just loved the script. I had been looking at independent scripts for a long time. I had been offered some really cool roles, but nothing that I ever really connected with. And then Mysterious Skin came along, and I thought, "Well, this is a sweet way to just sort of slide into the world." And it's very shocking, but it just read so well and it felt so beautiful on the page, and I immediately wanted to do it.'
'It's actually a lot like my own relationship [with Joseph Gordon-Levitt]. We're not as screwed up, thankfully. [laughs] But Joe and I are sort of like an old married couple. We have great conversations, we love each other, we're very, very comfortable just being around. It's all very organic. And I think the world of his acting abilities.'
'And I actually think the two characters that I've loved playing most in my life are Six Feet Under (Celeste) and Mysterious Skin (Wendy). Those are the two projects that I've ever been able to watch more than once. Everything else is cool and good, but I had a blast specifically on those.'
'And I just wanted something different, something I connected to. And if people watch this movie and say, "Oh my God, I can't believe she did this," [then] thank you, because that's, I guess, what I wanted you to say.'
'I think Mysterious Skin is one of the most beautiful depictions of human life and reality and what happens to people.'
Quotable: Others on Michelle
'And Michelle just nailed the part so perfectly. Her chemistry with Joe is dead on. Michelle is it—and the camera, of course, absolutely worships her.'Trivia
Michelle filmed this role before Ice Princess, she has received criticism for choosing a darker more edgy role after a family fun one, it is not true.